Discomposure
by fyd818
Summary: Everything was perfect for Hinata and Sasuke's first holiday as a married couple. Except, of course, for the trip to the ER. :Sasuke x Hinata: :Written for SasuHina month on dA:


Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto_, nor any places, things, characters, or ideas therein. The aforementioned belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Viz Media, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, etc. I am writing this fic for entertainment purposes only, not monetary gain.

Summary: Everything was perfect for Hinata and Sasuke's first holiday as a married couple. Except, of course, for the trip to the ER. :Sasuke x Hinata:

Rating: K+

Warnings: Some kissing, descriptions of pain

Pairing(s): Sasuke/Hinata, slight mentions of Fugaku/Mikoto, Neji/Tenten, and Itachi/Temari

Spoilers: None

Universe: Alternate

**Author's Note:** This fic was written for SasuHina month over on dA. It's my first time taking part in the event, and I'm really excited about it! Please forgive my eccentricity - though this fic _does_ take place in an American setting, I still list everyone's name clan, then given. It just doesn't look right to me otherwise. I'm really sorry if it's confusing - but everyone lives in America in this fic. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

***~Discomposure~***

_.:fyd818:._

* * *

"I feel like the turkey." Uchiha Hinata stared down at the massive twenty-pound uncooked turkey sitting in its roasting pan on the counter in her immaculate kitchen, feeling ready to tear her hair out even though it was only slightly past eight in the morning. She had a thousand things to do before the rest of the family showed up, and the time ticked ominously away whether she was getting anything done or not.

The headache with which she'd wakened throbbed and pulsed up the back of her head. It dug hot little claws into the edge of her scalp and pulled viciously backward, threatening to strip away the last of her composure and resolve.

Uchiha Sasuke, who sat on one of the stools at the island with a huge stainless steel bowl between his knees, kept breaking up slices of staled sourdough bread as he watched her warily. "Are you okay?" he asked suspiciously.

It was their first Thanksgiving together as a married couple, and of course Hinata couldn't do anything small. She'd decided to invite _the whole family_ - her father, Hiashi, and younger sister Hanabi; cousin Neji and his wife Tenten; Sasuke's brother Itachi and his wife, Temari; and Sasuke's parents, Fugaku and Mikoto. With a total of ten people at the table this year, she knew she had to put out a spread that would put the original settlers to shame.

"I'm fine," Hinata reassured him, though the words came out sounding rather weak. "This thing is twenty pounds. Everyone's supposed to be here around four. It takes around six hours to cook. Plus there's the dressing, and the sweet potato casserole, and the apple butter pumpkin pies, and the mashed potatoes, and the rolls, and the cranberry sauce, and-"

"Whoa." Sasuke clattered the bowl onto the island next to the remaining trays of bread. He stood and placed his hands on her shoulders, stroking his thumbs along her collarbones as he gazed into her eyes. "We're not feeding an _army_, sweetheart. It's just family." Leaning forward, he kissed her forehead. "Everything's going to go just fine."

She sent Sasuke back to the bread and went back to staring at the turkey. It had been thawing for almost a week. As soon as she rubbed it inside and out with a special herbed, softened butter mixture and tented it with foil, it would be ready to put in the oven.

And then she had to work on _everything else_. Granted, she had Sasuke's help, but Hinata knew it was her responsibility to make sure everything turned out just right. She wasn't hoping for the perfect food in magazines and on television - that was all arranged to look the best, and was often inedible - but she just wanted everything to look, and smell, and taste - well, _tasty_.

The turkey went in the oven about half an hour later, and then Hinata got started on the casserole while the finely diced onions and celery for the dressing gently sauteéd in butter. At nine Sasuke turned the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on the little television on the counter. They listened to the commentary on all the floats, inflatables, marching bands, and famous singers as they worked.

Hinata took a break every now and then to see her favorites - everyone's favorite comic strip beagle, obviously, and a few of the marching bands, plus a couple of the Broadway performances. But for the most part she stayed a dynamo, rushing around the kitchen doing what felt like a hundred different tasks as she reminded Sasuke of what he had to do.

By the time Santa showed up at the end of the parade, only half the dishes were done and the rest were still in the early stages of beginning. As the dough for the rolls rose, Sasuke rolled out the crusts for the pies, and Hinata started peeling a small mountain of potatoes for the homemade mashed potatoes. Her headache now formed a tight band around her forehead, in addition to the encroachments it had already made. Her shoulders felt so tense she thought her muscles would snap, and she wanted to cry at the thought of how much she still had left to do.

_Noon. Only four hours until everyone's supposed to get here_. Granted, the food didn't need to be ready until around five, but she hoped to have everything pretty much ready to go so she could spend some time with people before they all sat down at the table.

A whine from the kitchen doorway brought her attention to her and Sasuke's dog, a sixty-four pound Belgian Malinois/boxer mix Hinata rescued from a truck stop on her way home from vacation a couple of years before. She'd practically had to fight Tenten, with whom she'd taken the trip, to keep him, but she was glad she'd done so.

"What's wrong, Nuki?" She'd named the dog Tanuki, after the Japanese raccoon dogs, because of his sweet black face. Abandoning the potatoes, she went to kneel in front of her loyal pet, who nudged his cold black nose into her neck in a hug of sorts. "You have plenty of food. Do you need to go outside?"

Nuki snorted and shook his head, his intelligent brown eyes staring into hers as if begging her to read his mind. Sometimes Hinata wished she could, but for the most part, she was happy being oblivious to his doggy thought processes.

"He knows you're stressed out," Sasuke said reasonably as he set down the rolling pin and headed to the sink to rinse his sticky, flour-covered hands. "Why don't you just sit down for a couple of minutes and take a breather? I'll finish up the potatoes, and you just rest."

Hinata sat right down on the kitchen floor with her back against the fridge, letting Nuki lie down next to her and rest his head in her lap. "All right," she breathed. "But just for a minute."

Leaning her head back against the cool door, she closed her eyes against the glare of the overhead lights, which felt like knives stabbing into her eyes. In the blessed darkness behind her eyelids, she listened to the sound of the knife scraping the peel off the rest of the potatoes. Each one seemed a little louder than the last, and even the coolness of the refrigerator behind her couldn't soothe the growing ache in her head, shoulders, and back. Nausea swirled through her middle, making the myriad smells of cooking foods turn stomach-turning instead of mouth-watering.

She bit back a moan, and Nuki whimpered again. His smooth warm tongue darted out and licked her hand where it rested limply on her leg. Then he nudged his cold nose into her palm, whining deep in his throat.

"Hinata?" The tension in Sasuke's voice brought Hinata's eyes open with a dizzying snap. The room tilted slightly as she watched her handsome husband kneel in front of her. "Are you okay?" He cupped the side of her face, thumb brushing along her cheekbone.

Flinching away from his touch, Hinata curled her hand into a fist around her top and whispered, "My head hurts so badly. And my shoulders, and my back. I can barely move, I'm so stiff. I feel so sick to my stomach..."

Sliding to sit next to her, Sasuke very carefully shifted her so she leaned back against his upthrust legs, bracing her as he settled his hands on her shoulders and gently began to massage them.

Hinata fought back the urge to scream. "Stop!" she gasped breathlessly. "That h-hurts." Her stomach pitched, and she pushed away from her husband so she could lunge for the kitchen trash can. She retched, and heaved, and retched again, feeling like her entire head down to her neck was about to explode.

Behind her, she vaguely heard clicking sounds as Sasuke turned off the oven and burners. "That's it," he said, coming to kneel next to her and brush loose strands of her hair off her pale, clammy face. "I'm taking you to the emergency room."

* * *

_Spinal meningitis_. The words repeated themselves over and over in his head, an ongoing mantra which made him want to punch holes through the walls and scream.

The thought had occurred to him to look up Hinata's symptoms online, since she'd insisted on changing clothes before going to the hospital. While he waited, he'd entered everything into his favorite search engine on his phone.

It had been the first thing to pop up. When he clicked on the result and read more about it, Sasuke began to realize Hinata might be sicker than he first thought. If the infection had already started to spread...

_No_. Sasuke firmly shoved away the thought, refusing to accept it. A nurse had taken Hinata back to the ER over an hour before, leaving Sasuke in a corner of the crowded waiting room trying to still his shaking hands and regain his composure enough to call their relatives and tell them what was going on. The words "spinal meningitis" had not been uttered by any medical professionals, but the harsh black words on the white background of his phone seemed burned into his retinas. He couldn't shake them, or their implications.

He shot another glance at the implacably closed doors across the room, wishing someone would come out and tell him what was going on. It would be nice if Sasuke had _something_ concrete to report to the others on the phone...

...Who was he kidding? It would be nice if he knew what was going on, _period_.

Unfortuantely, the doors remained closed. Sighing, Sasuke pulled out his phone and stared at the screen, wondering who to call first. Part of him thought her father and sister should be the first to know, since it _was_ Hinata in the emergency room and they _were_ her family, but he didn't feel like talking to His Highness Hyuuga or his wild sister-in-law.

On the family vein, Sasuke wondered if he should call Neji and Tenten. Hinata had always been as close as brother-and-sister with her cousin, a year older than her, and Tenten had been her best friend ever since they met in martial arts class when Hinata was eleven and Tenten twelve - Neji, in fact, had introduced the two. He knew both would want to know, but he didn't want to talk to either of them. Not yet.

His own parents came to mind next, and Sasuke hovered his thumb over the preset for their home number. While Sasuke yearned to hear his mother's calm, soothing voice, he knew his father would probably be the one to answer the phone. Fugaku was definitely _not_ calm and soothing.

Which left his brother and sister-in-law. Itachi had always been the calmer of the brothers: older and wiser and a complete rock in emergency situations. Ever since he was a kid, Sasuke instinctively turned to his brother when he had a problem. Itachi always knew what to do.

He felt a little of the tension in his shoulders ease as he hit the preset number for Itachi's cell phone number with his thumb. _Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up..._

The phone clicked. "...tell him, 'Mari," Itachi was saying as he presumably lifted the phone to his mouth. "Hello, Sasuke. We'll be on time, I promise." The teasing in his voice would make Sasuke laugh on any other day, especially since he'd reminded Itachi and Temari at least ten times over the past week not to be late, since Hinata was looking forward to Thanksgiving so much.

Sasuke had to clear his throat twice before he could reply. "That's not why I'm calling." His voice sounded rough, even to his own ears. "I'm - I'm in the hospital emergency room."

Itachi's sharp inhale on the other end of the line sounded almost like a scream in reverse. "Sasuke, are you all right? Is it Hinata?" All hints of teasing had fled, replaced by the same tension and concern humming through Sasuke's veins.

Leaning closer to the window, Sasuke stared out into the parking lot and swallowed hard. "She had a headache when we got up, but I thought it was stress. She kept insisting she was fine, and we got started on the food. But as we worked, she kept getting paler and slowing down, and I could tell she didn't feel good. I made her take a break, and she sat down on the floor there in the kitchen in front of the fridge, and Nuki could tell something was wrong too, and-" He knew he was babbling, so he drew in a deep breath and started again. "She complained her head and neck hurt, and shoulders and back were so tense, too. I tried to massage her shoulders, but she practically screamed and told me to stop, it hurt. Then she got sick, and - and that's when I brought her here."

"Oh, Sasuke." Itachi's voice sounded again, a little further away, as he said, "Temari, Sasuke had to take Hinata to the emergency room." Even from a distance Sasuke heard his sister-in-law's gasp, and then his brother came back on the line. "We're on our way there now. Konoha General, right?"

"Yeah." Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned his head against the cool glass. "Could you call Mom and Father for me? I just - I just can't talk to them right now. I need to call Hiashi, and Neji and Tenten, and let them know, so..." He trailed off.

"You want me to call them, too?" A thud on the other end of the line sounded like a car door closing, and Sasuke knew Itachi and Temari were on the way.

"No, it's okay. I can do it. Just call our parents, please." Sasuke figured it would be better if Hiashi and Neji heard it from him instead of his brother.

"All right, I can do that. As soon as I hang up, I'll call them. Temari's driving, so we'll be there in just a few minutes."

Sasuke felt a weak grin curl his lips at his brother's not-so-veiled reference to his wife's lead foot. Itachi often joked he'd married a race car driver instead of a defense attorney; Sasuke had made the mistake of riding with Temari only once. He'd learned what Itachi meant and would never make the same error in judgement again. His life and sanity couldn't take it.

The brothers hung up, and Sasuke scrolled up to Neji and Tenten's house number. Maybe he'd get lucky and Tenten would pick up, because Hinata's overprotective cousin would probably jump down Sasuke's throat as soon as the word "hospital" was mentioned. Then again, Tenten had something of an obsession with all things sharp and pointy, and an impressive collection to match, so really, which was the lesser of two evils?

To Sasuke's great good fortune, Tenten picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Tenten, it's Sasuke. I'm in the ER at Konoha General."

Tenten didn't let him get any further. "What's wrong? What happened? Are you guys okay?" In the background, Neji demanded to know what was going on.

"I'm fine. It's Hinata." Sasuke reiterated the same thing he'd told Itachi, watching the doors to the ER out of the corner of his eye the whole time. What was taking so long? Were the ER staff even now fighting grimly to save Hinata's life? Was there some kind of mix up?

Or were all the doctors gathered on the other side of the door drawing straws to see who would tell the poor husband the bad news that his wife died on Thanksgiving Day?

"Thanks for calling, Sasuke. Neji and I will be right over in a few minutes, okay?" Tenten's voice was calm, though she couldn't quite mask the concern in her voice. "Have you already called Hiashi, or do you need me to do that?"

Despite what he told Itachi, he felt a weight lift off his shoulders at Tenten's offer. "I haven't called him yet," he admitted. "I called Itachi, and he's calling our parents. I wanted to call you first, and then I thought I'd call him."

The now-familiar sound of a vehicle door closing came through the speaker, and the roar of an engine nearly drowned out Tenten's next words. "It's all right," she said. "I'll call him on the way. You just hang in there, okay? If you hear something before we get there, call or text Neji's phone, will you?"

"Sure." They hung up. Sasuke let his hand holding the phone fall into his lap. By now Fugaku and Mikoto would know what was going on and be on their way; Itachi and Temari had to be almost to the hospital; Neji and Tenten were coming; and Hiashi and Hanabi wouldn't be too far behind.

But, for now, despite all the other people in the waiting room with him, he felt absolutely alone.

* * *

Hinata felt the nausea start to ease as the buxom blonde ER doctor smiled down at her after withdrawing the hypodermic she held from the injection port in the IV line. "Is that better?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you." The shattering pain in her back, neck, and shoulders was starting to fade, too. Her head still hurt pretty badly, but things were getting better. "What was that you gave me?" Things were starting to look a little fuzzy around the edges.

"Just a little something for your nausea, and a pain medicine for your headache." Shaking her head, the doctor made a notation on the screen of the flat black device she held. "You had me worried for a little while there. When you first came in, I thought for sure you had spinal meningitis. You had a lot of the same symptoms, except for the fever. But you were still able to touch your chin to your chest, and the CT scan came back negative."

She felt what blood remained in her already pale face drain out of it. She'd heard of spinal meningitis, and she knew what the implications would have been if she did have it. "I'm - glad I don't," she said. A memory from a TV show she'd seen over the spring flashed through her mind, of a famous double-amputee para Olympian who'd had the dread disease.

Senju Tsunade, M.D. as her nametag proclaimed, patted Hinata on the shoulder. "Me, too. Thankfully, it was just a _really_ nasty stress headache. Next year, promise me you won't take on the whole Thanksgiving dinner by yourself, okay? Let some other people help, too."

Closing her eyes, Hinata chuckled weakly. "And here I thought I was so organized- Next year, I think we'll all just go eat out somewhere."

The doctor laughed, the sound deep and genuine. "I think that's a very good idea," she said, flipping the lid over her pad and tucking it under her arm. "Now then, I'm going to go start the process of getting you checked out of here so you can go home. Who should we call to come get you?"

Hinata scrambled to grab the string of the kite her mind seemed to have turned into, which was rapidly trying to float out of her reach. "You mean Sasuke doesn't know I'm okay?" She made to try to sit up, but Tsunade quickly put her hand on her shoulder to restrain her.

"Easy there. You can go home, but I don't think you need to be moving around quite so quickly. Now then, who's Sasuke?" The way the doctor's brows drew down over her snapping amber eyes, Hinata had a feeling someone was in trouble. She only hoped she wasn't the one on the receiving end of such formidable anger.

"My husband. He's the one who brought me in. He's in the waiting room. Has a nurse been out to see him?" How could she have forgotten him? The fact she'd been in so much pain she could barely remember her own name didn't count. She'd just naturally assumed one of the nurses was keeping Sasuke updated. But from the look on Dr. Senju's face, that didn't seem to be the case.

"We're shorthanded, and overrun with idiots who burned themselves trying to deepfry their turkeys, but still, none of the nurses told me someone had brought you in. I thought you'd come by ambulance." Patting Hinata's shoulder again, gently and reassuringly, the doctor turned and headed toward the door. "It's all right. I'll go out there myself right now and tell him you're okay and about to be released." With a little wave, she disappeared out the door, white lab coat flapping around her well-endowed form, twin blonde ponytails flying.

Hinata closed her eyes and allowed the medicine to carry her away into a happy haze, where her nausea and pain were gone and Thanksgiving dinner had turned out _exactly_ the way she'd planned. And she looked like a beauty queen instead of death warmed over (she hadn't caught a glimpse of herself in a reflective surface recently, but she had a feeling she looked like she felt).

"Hinata." Suddenly Sasuke was there, his arms around her, his lips against her forehead, her cheeks, her nose... "You're all right."

She forced her heavy eyes open. "'Course I'm 'kay," she said, surprised when her words slurred. Licking her dry lips, she smiled fuzzily and said, "I'm fine. Just a little - little medicated."

Sasuke's lips and eyebrows twitched at the same time, a funny sight. She giggled.

This time he smiled and shook his head. "You _are_ medicated, but more than just a little. That doctor gave you the good stuff. You're going to be higher than a kite for the rest of Thanksgiving."

"Kite." Hinata smiled dreamily. "My mind feels like a kite. And it's floating away..."

Stroking her hair away from her face, Sasuke shook his head down at her and leaned over to kiss her forehead and cheeks again. "You _scared_ me, Hina. I thought you had..." He trailed off.

Her husband's grim tone called up some sort of sobriety in her medicine-fogged brain. Blinking, Hinata looked up at him. "Spinal meningitis. I know. That's what the doctor thought I had, too, at first. But it's okay. It was just stress." She sighed. "_Lots_ of stress." Someday, she'd laugh about this.

Maybe.

"Everyone came over here," Sasuke said, tilting his head back towards the door through which he'd entered the little cubicle. "We've been out there almost three hours - well, four for me - waiting to hear what was going on. The nurse at the front desk was never any help, and the nurses who came out always wanted to get someone else, not tell me anything."

"The doctor said they were shorthanded and really busy. I guess communication is one of the first things to go." Hinata saw the lingering concern in Sasuke's dark eyes, and she reached up with her free hand to touch his face. "I'm all right. Promise."

He kissed the back of her hand he held. "I see that. Promise me something?"

At this point, Hinata would promise Sasuke a trip to the moon. Which, incidentally, she felt like she was floating towards right then. "Anything," she said fervently.

Sasuke stared down at her with a sober, completely serious expression and said, "Promise me you will _never_ try to fix Thanksgiving dinner again."

It was an easy promise to make. "I promise."

The next year, just like Hinata had promised the emergency room doctor, the entire family ate Thanksgiving dinner out.

***~The End~***

_**Author's Ending Notes:**_ This actually happened to my mother on Thanksgiving several years ago. Though she was only cooking for half as many people, she got so stressed out she wound up in the emergency room with a terrible stress headache which everyone thought for a while was spinal meningitis. And for many years she never cooked Thanksgiving dinner - until last year, when she tried it again (for four, this time) and things went smoothly. Hinata's dog, Nuki, is inspired by my own Jazz - I rescued him from a truck stop on my way home from vacation one year, and still have to fight my best friend over him sometimes! All Nuki's behavior is based on Jazz's - he really does stare at me like he's trying to get me to understand what he's thinking/saying (he tries to talk sometimes, I do not kid), and when I don't feel good, he comes and rests his head on my lap and licks my hand. And apple butter pumpkin pie? Best. Dessert. Ever. This fic _does_ take place in an American setting, though I did use the Japanese clan name, then given name. It just doesn't look right to me the other way (i.e. Hinata Uchiha), so forgive me if it seemed a little confusing. Thank you all so much for reading this fic, and I hope you enjoyed it! I'll be back on the 18th with another fic - I'm looking forward to it!


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